Here’s a question for anyone who’s ever set a conference agenda. Would you put your keynote speaker in a tight spot by inserting a last-minute surprise speaker you knew would rattle them to the core?
It’s a question I asked myself this week after watching Kara Swisher, who is a masterful interviewer with a flair for dramatic tension, at the Code Conference. The story is a
bit convoluted, but juicy and instructive. Linda Yaccarino, now CEO of X (formerly Twitter), had, for months, been featured as one of the top-billed speakers at the Code Conference, a tech conference created by Swisher. Code has the reputation for bringing the top brass of technology companies to the stage and grilling (often skewering) them.
Ostensibly (I believe this part) at the 11th hour, the Code Conference inserted Yoel Roth, former head of Trust and Safety, at what was then Twitter, to appear on stage just before Yaccarino’s
appearance. Roth spoke eloquently about his reasons for leaving Twitter, including his discomfort with many of Musk’s decisions. Roth came across as earnest, informed, and tortured by Musk’s leadership. He received a standing ovation.
Yaccarino could have backed out when she found out that Roth would be a late addition to the program, but of course, that would not have looked good. Instead, she tried to put on her best gameface in an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. Despite Boorstin’s carefully
worded questions, Yaccarino looked horribly defensive and couldn’t sufficiently answer simple questions about X’s policies, current traffic, or ad revenues. She defensively distanced herself from the old Twitter but couldn’t articulate much about the new X. Multiple news reports portrayed her interview as tense and rattled, a dumpster fire and plain ‘ole bizarre. The X-verse exploded with second-day quarterbacks, many agreeing that Yaccarino had been ambushed by the last-minute Roth addition, and just as many siding with Swisher who said, Yaccarino should have been able to strut her CEO-ness and not appear
unsure and uninformed.
Gossip aside, the question is: does a conference planner owe it to their main speaker to give them a heads up about potential conflicts, or is all this fair in the name of drama-packed events? And equally important, should conference planners work to inject a bit more disagreement into their lineups? Diverse voices and different opinions add an excitement that many
conferences lack. Finally, if you’re asked to speak, better know the context, the other players in the lineup, and come prepared. Can’t get enough of the juicy details? Listen to Swisher break down the Twitter/X showdown. |